


Dimension Houses

by frozennightmare



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Fic Trade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-01
Updated: 2013-06-01
Packaged: 2017-12-13 14:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/825408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozennightmare/pseuds/frozennightmare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Entry for the May TARDIS Ficathon. The prompt was "a room mocking the beans-on-toast life". The angst was unintentional, I swear. Enjoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dimension Houses

**Author's Note:**

> yeah, this looked longer in word. also the title's a bit rubbish, I'm rubbish at titles.

 

 

"Wake up! Waake upp!"

There's a tiny hand tugging at her side, someone she doesn't know trying to get her out of bed. What the-? Last she remembers she was in the TARDIS. She shouldn't even be at home.

"Mummy!" 

It's weird, it really is. Half of her is telling her there's something royally fucked up with whatever's happening here, and the other half is resisting it as normal. It is normal, what is she thinking about? She wasn't on the TARDIS two seconds ago, she hasn't been on the TARDIS in years. 

"Come on Rose, you've slept long enough." There's a voice she knows. See? Everything's normal.

Rose finally opens her eyes to see her Doctor leaning over her, cup of coffee in one hand, glasses perched awkwardly on his nose, hair still an utter mess. "Morning." she murmurs, ruffling his hair up even farther.

"Mummy! I'm hungry."

"I'll be down in a second Peter, now go wake up your sister." Every word sounds strange, yet completely natural. 

The Doctor is looking at her strange. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, I just had the strangest dream...." It's like looking at him through a mirror, something just isn't quite right....

"ROSE!"

Sparks. Sparks everywhere. She's waking up again. Why is she waking up again? 

"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose lurches forward and grabs onto  a bookcase. It's a room, somewhere in the TARDIS, one with faded old chairs and a unused fireplace and empty picture frames on every available surface. That's right, she'd asked the Doctor to show her around, all the odd rooms and things.

"I'm an idiot, I should never have come in here!" he shouts. "The TARDIS, she's mocking us. Whatever you see, it's not real. This room is the only real thing. Don't forget that. This room is real, nothing else. Do you understand?"

She nods. "I think-"

"You think what?" 

Rose blinks, and she's sitting on a park bench, talking to Shereen. 

"Sorry-I was drifting off." she splutters. What had she been talking about? Whatever, it couldn't have been important. 

"Figures." mutters Shereen, then gets up to go grab her kids and leave. Rose leans back on the bench, watching her own two, the younger playing with her black-coated husband- she wishes he would just take that damn thing off, it's leather and it's the middle of summer, he's got to be cooking. 

Suddenly she's aware of someone else in the park, someone she doesn't know. There's a tall man in a trenchcoat looking very suspicious, wandering around the edge of the park like he's got something he's got to do. Rose checks one last time to ensure the Doctor has a firm eye on the kids, then gets up to chase him. No creep is wandering around her park.

"Hey! What are you doing, hanging around here?"

The man turns to look at her, and it's like he stares straight through her. Then he turns and walks away.

No way. She is not letting this pedophile ignore her. "Come back here!" 

He keeps going, picking up into a run, but Rose doesn't slow down. But- it's not right, it's like he keeps phasing in and out of reality. She chases him all the way down the city block and across a crosswalk and-

The last thing she hears is the scream of brakes as a bus tries to stop. Idiot- she hadn't thought to look before she ran across. The bus strikes her straight on, snapping her neck in an instant.

"Rose! Rose, are you alright?"

The Doctor is shaking her awake- the right one this time, not his previous form. This is getting more and more disturbing by the moment. 

"Yeah-yeah, I'm fine."

"You were hit by a bus, I was worried-"

"Was I? Yeah, you're right, I was... wait, so you were the creeper at the park?"

"The TARDIS let me penetrate your pocket of reality, but it wouldn't let me interfere..I was hoping it'd be enough to wake you up."

"Okay, um, any other ideas?"

"Working on that, but for right now, just try to-"

Try to what? Hell, who was even talking to her? The only thing she can hear is the birds outside. It's just her, in a quiet little house, trying to decipher the language on her stupid credit card bill. It's like you need a law degree to decipher these things these days, this is insane. 

Screw it. Rose has other things she needs to do, groceries to buy, the usual. Errands are a pain in the ass but they've got to be done.

She's in the parking lot, inundated with bags, when one comes rolling out of her hand and spills it's contents all over the concrete.

"Shit!" 

"Can I help you?" The man at the next car over stops loading his own and starts picking up her fallen groceries. 

"Thank you!" she splutters. It's not very often people help her. 

He grabs her last can and smiles from under a mess of floppy hair. "Not a problem." He's probably come straight from work, still in his suit.

"What's your name?" 

"Doctor John Smith. And you are? Never mind, you don't have to tell me if you don't want."

"Oh, no, it's fine, I'm Rose."

She giggles unexpectedly. 

"What? I must look ridiculous, I know."

"No, it's not that, I just-I feel like I know you. Isn't that weird?"

Doctor Smith shrugs. "The universe is a weird place."

There's a loud commotion from the front of the store.

"What's going on?" asks Rose.

"Looks like some sort of robbery...do you think we should-"

"You call the cops, I'll distract them."

"I'm coming with you!"

They both sprint in the general direction of the entrance, and she finds herself oddly happy. Running towards danger-it feels right.

Oh God, they're more heavily armed than she had thought. What was she thinking?

"Oi! You two, on the ground, or we'll shoot!"

Rose fumbles for her phone,only to feel something like a shard of ice pierce her chest. The Doctor is screaming her name -and it's the Doctor and Doctor Smith, screaming at the same time, trying to jostle her awake, but she's already dead...

The Doctor succeeds. Doctor Smith does not.

"You're alright, you're alright, I thought you were dead." he repeats.

"Why is the TARDIS doin' this?" she asks blindly. "I get that whole thing with mocking normal people's lives, I don't mind it really. But why do I keep dying?"

"I don't know."

The TARDIS is giving them even less turnaround time, and this time when she blinks she knows, doesn't even have to bother with that silly amnesia stuff. But this time Rose can't move, all there is is the faint beep of wires and machines, trivial things keeping her alive. She's old, so old, and now she starts to wonder if it's not her the TARDIS is having fun with, it's the Doctor.

"Rose." And there he is, the man himself, still young and brilliant and so, so sad. He sits down beside her and grabs her hand. 

"I know you can't hear me." he says quietly. "You're so deep in that coma even I can't bring you out. I- I just wish I could make it work, so you could be young again. You know I-" He pauses. "I don't want you to die. I don't think you do either, the doctor said he's never seen someone hold on this long after that kind of stroke. But...sweetheart, you've got to let go, okay? You've got to let go. Rose, I-"

  
_No, it's alright, Doctor, just wake up, it'll all be alright_ - 

But her thoughts can't stop his tears.

  
_Please, stop hurting him_! Rose cries out to the TARDIS. _You've had your fun, now stop!_  


Then she blinks.

Thank God they made it back to the room. And it's stabilizing now, it's not shaking anymore. The door is thankfully clear.

"Let's get out of 'ere!" shouts Rose, and practically drags the Doctor along. But the room changes before her eyes with every step, becoming a drunk driver on a dark street, a hospital room with her crying mother, graveyard after graveyard , death  after death, flashing at the speed of light, trying to find a weakpoint. 

"Stop it, stop it now!" The Doctor screams out unexpectedly.

The room stops dizzyingly. They're inches from the door. It's open.

Open.

"Come on, let's get out of here." orders the Doctor.

Rose swings her hand into his.

"Hey."

"What?"

"You know you're never getting rid of me, right?"

"'Course I do." He's still shaken, they both are.

"What do we do now? That wasn't supposed to happen, I shouldn't think-"

"No, it wasn't! Activate emergency protocol six!"

He practically screams at the TARDIS console, like he's angry at her. Rose doesn't blame him in the least. 

"Protocol six activated." A hologram flickers into life, but it's not the current Doctor, it's the previous one. 

"Why is it-"

"Wellll, must have forgotten to reset it. I do that. So come on, tell me, who altered the programming in the domestics room?"

"Oi, why is that room even there?" Rose asks. "What is really supposed to do?"

"It takes your deepest memories of home, your fantasies about life outside this machine, magnifies them, turns them into pockets of reality fit for exploration. But it's supposed to be fun, not glorified torture. So who messed with it?"

"There is no record of an alteration in programming."

It's a bit disconcerting, hearing that Northern accent be so...mechanical. 

"What happened, tell me!"

"The TARDIS wanted you to learn."

Rose freezes. "Learn what?"

"She simply wishes to prepare you. Her Doctor. She does not wish to see him hurt." 

"Doctor, what's he-the TARDIS-blathering on about?" Rose says.

"Haven't the faintest. What do you mean, prepare me?"

"She will end. She will always end. There will always be a battle, there will always be another doomsday, and you cannot stop it. I am sorry. She will die."

"Okay, that's quite enough of you!" The Doctor quickly turns the hologram off. "Stupid TARDIS...Rose?"

"A battle. It said there's always be a battle."

"Don't listen to it, it's old and malfunctioning."

"But the beast, the thing in the pit, it said I was going to die in battle!"

"Rose, it's nothing, you're not going to die!" 

Rose let's out a terrified breath. "Can you promise that?"

The Doctor shakes his head sadly. "You know I can't."

 


End file.
